A terrorist assassination list that included Israel’s Ambassador to Italy, Moshe Allon and the Military Attache of the Israel Embassy in Rome was cited by an Italian Judge as clear evidence of the collaboration between the Red Brigade and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Judge Pino Amato, the public prosecutor in the trial of Red Brigade terrorist Antonio Savasta who is charged with the murder of former Premier Aldo Moro, said the one fact in Savasta’s testimony that must be given complete credibility was that regarding the PLO-Red Brigade agreement by which the PLO smuggled weapons and explosives to the Red Brigade in exchange for terrorist acts by the latter against Israel.
According to Savasta’s confession, a PLO-Red Brigade attempt on the lives of the Israeli diplomats was planned over a year ago under the terms of the agreement. Judge Amato said the proof was an incident in the fall of 1980 when two Italian terrorists, Nicoletti and Bruno Seghetti, were arrested in Naples and found to be carrying notes with the names, telephone numbers and other details, written in English, of the Israeli Ambassador’s daily schedule in Rome and the schedule of the Military Attache.
The PLO office in Rome has persistently denied all allegations of collaboration with the Red Brigade. Until now, the Italian news media have expressed doubts about the reliability of confessions made by terrorists under interrogation. But Judge Amato’s confirmation of Savasta’s testimony is expected to make the media less skeptical in the future.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
